Sixers beat Heat to stay alive

In the frozen city of Detroit, 76ers guard Lou Williams promised his teammates he'd win them more games than he cost them.

On that painful January night, Williams had missed two free throws in a brutal overtime loss to the lousy Detroit Pistons. The loss was a valley in the mountainous landscape of an NBA season.

And Sunday afternoon was a peak.

Williams' three-pointer, which snapped the net as only the cleanest of made shots do, gave his team an 86-82 playoff victory over the Miami Heat inside a rocking Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers stiff-armed elimination; they avoided a sweep in this opening-round, best-of-seven series. The teams will return to Miami for Wednesday's Game 5.

The Heat still lead the series, three games to one.

Williams' shot dropped with 8.9 seconds remaining on the clock. It came on the heels of a similar long-range make by point guard Jrue Holiday, and was the final field goal in a 10-0 burst that propelled the Sixers past the Heat.

Miami held an 82-76 advantage with only 1 minute, 35 seconds left in the game. In that moment, you wouldn't have been batty to flip the channel: In the series' first three games, the Heat had easily slammed shut the door in the closing possessions.

At varying crucial stretches during the first three games of this series, the Sixers' offense has dropped off the side of the cliff. For most of Sunday's fourth quarter, this was happening again. The Sixers scored only one point - and missed eight field goals - during a five-minute stretch from 6:35 remaining until 1:22 remaining.

That was when rookie Evan Turner (17 points) dropped a difficult floater along the left baseline, a shot that felt a little bit like throwing a dart at a monster.

The Sixers would need so much more to slay the dragon.

Holiday then nailed a step-back three pointer from the right wing with 46.9 seconds remaining. After getting one in a series of defensive stops, Williams collected the rebound with 24.9 seconds on the clock, absorbed coach Doug Collins' encouragement to push it upcourt - no timeout needed - and ended up with the game-winner from the top of the key.

"Honestly, I think every shot Lou shoots is going to go in - seriously," Holiday said. "Definitely in big times, he's the guy to go."

Williams scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter.

"We always try to get as many transition opportunities as we can, and Jrue had tried to get in the lane," said Williams, who entered this series slowed by a strained right hamstring. "They did a good job of cutting him off. Evan tried to get into the lane as well. So I figured a jump shot was going to be our best opportunity of getting it to the rim."

Miami star Dwyane Wade guarded Williams.

"Lou is a guy who takes and makes big shots for them," said Wade, whose 22 points were second only to LeBron James' 31. "I got a good contest."

After seeing Williams' shot fall, Miami immediately called a timeout.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra drew up a play for James, who was guarded by Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala. James drove the right lane, but his close-range shot was deflected by Sixers power forward Elton Brand.

"Everyone was saying we were going to get swept," Brand said. "All right, now we didn't get swept. So now let's see what's going to happen next game."

After Sunday's game, the Sixers were eager to point out that three of this series' four games have been decided in the final minutes. Although it has been lopsided in win total, that's been the only area.

"If you guys could have been in our huddles - the resolve our players had," Collins relayed. "They all said to me: 'We're going back to Miami.' "

The Sixers have always been a team that has fought, it's just that before Sunday's game, they had never been a team that finished.

"I just wanted to give us an opportunity to win the basketball game," Williams said.

Just like he promised he'd do.